AirDrop..iThink, iShare -^|^- Steal my iPhone and I will make it a $$$ iRock :)

We all mourned the loss of visionary and creative genius, cofounder, chairman and CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs. He surrounds himself with exceptionally bright people who reciprocate and further elevate his thinking to revolutionize computer, music and mobile phone industries. 

But with the new products coming to market today, it's evident that his visions and creativity still lives and grows within Apple. I'm not going to go into details of the new products since 2011. We have certainly seen improvement and further innovations as recently as few weeks back. The new iPhone5S and iPhone5C is just absolutely beautiful...and iOS 7 is just too awesome. Maybe Android users would disagree..thats ok because its not my intention to compare iOS and Android today - not to mention Apple vs Samsung. iOS 7 is a true representation of simplicity in a new dimension, with the most complex computing platform (as of now iPhone 5S is on top of the list of most powerful computing in a mobile phone) simplified with human factor in mind. 

Some of the top features in iOS 7, among many includes: a new control center, simplified and enhanced Safari, robust multitasking, inbuilt Apple AirDrop, more friendly Siri, superb features in camera & a new simplified presentation of Photos, secure iCloud Keychain, new level of privacy with application level controls, builtin encryption of emails and personal information (when passcode is enabled), autoupdate for apps, FaceTime audio calls, iTunes Radio...etc. One of the most notable, and most important feature is additional security in Find My Phone. With iCloud and Find My Phone Service enabled, even if you phone gets stolen and completely erased or iOS gets replaced, it can never be used again without your credentials. That's certainly a great feature!  

I got carried away...so I'm not going to talk about the new iPhone models. I'm going to talk about 2 features; Find My Phone and AirDrop.

New level of security in Find My Phone service makes it practically unusable in case it gets stolen or lost. The new "activation lock" secures your device in case of theft. In addition to passcode set on your device, your iCloud username and password is required to enable and disable Find My Phone in iCloud, and the activation lock which is required to restore iOS or reactivate with a different iOS installation. This new level of security prevents a tech-savvy thief from tweaking your device to a usable device, which can be done in previous versions of iOS. Thanks to Apple! 

Make sure you always have this service enabled. It's free and would take only minutes to setup. And also do remember to turn this off, or completely erase all content and settings when selling your device to someone else...it's as good as a very expensive rock otherwise ;)

AirDrop brings "no setup" file sharing functionality to Apple mobile platform; easy and seamless way to transfer digital assets between compatible devices (Recent Macs with OS X 10.7 Lion or higher, iPhone 5S, 5C, 5, iPad 4th Gen, iPad mini and iPod touch 5th Gen running iOS 7). Limited to recent devices, unfortunately AirDrop between Macs and iOS is not supported yet. Prior to iOS 7, file sharing among iOS was quite a hassle with some third party applications with limited support.

On the technology side, AirDrop is a proximity limited..meaning, two devices has to be in Bluetooth range for this to work, which is about 10 meters. Bluetooth is used to discover AirDrop enabled devices and establish connection, following which an ad-hoc Wi-Fi connection is established between the devices for a much more robust transfer, which is very useful when you're sharing large files such as videos. 

It's very easy to setup. Drag the control center, up from bottom of the screen. Click AirDrop which is turned off by default. You've 2 options; contacts only and everyone. With "contacts only" selected, your phone will be discoverable to only those people who are in your contacts. Both devices has to be discoverable for AirDrop to work. Now sharing is a click away..open the file you want to share, click share and you'd see airdrop enabled users around you. Click the person you want to share with...once they accept, it's done. Easy!

You can AirDrop many things such as photos, videos, notes, attachments in emails, PDFs, contacts, and Safari pages among others. I'm hopeful that third party apps would integrate AirDrop soon. Downside is that it doesn't work on any model prior to iPhone 5, even with iOS 7. 

How I wish Apple Stores would allow me to AirDrop money and in return I get their products AirDropped....iPhone 5S. No harm in dreaming, eh ;)